Researchers have identified a drug that can
regenerate teeth from the inside out, possibly reducing the need for artificial
fillings.

The drug was previously used in Alzheimer’s
clinical trials, and it now appears to improve the tooth’s natural ability to
heal itself. It works by activating stem cells inside the tooth's pulp centre,
prompting the damaged area to regenerate the hard dentin material that makes up
the majority of a tooth.

"The simplicity of our approach makes it
ideal as a clinical dental product for the natural treatment of large cavities,
by providing both pulp protection and restoring dentine," said lead authorPaul Sharpe from King’s College London.

"In addition, using a drug that has
already been tested in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease provides a real
opportunity to get this dental treatment quickly into clinics."

After a tooth is damaged by things like trauma
or cavities, the soft pulp at its centre can be exposed, increasing the risk of
infection.

To prevent that, our bodies create a thinlayer of dentin - the hard, calcified tissue that makes up the bulk of a tooth
- which helps block outside material from making its way inside.

But this process is not enough to stop large
cavities from exposing the vulnerable pulp, which is why dentists drill out the
cavity, and then pack the area with artificial fillings - a treatment that's
worked in the past, but isn’t ideal.

"Fillings work fine, but if the tooth
can repair itself, surely [that’s] the best way. You’re restoring all the
vitality of the tooth."

Sharpe and his team found that they could use
the Alzheimer's drug Tideglusib to stimulate the stem cells inside a tooth to
actually create more dentin than usual, regenerating the whole structure
without needing to add any foreign substance at all.

In other words, no fillings.

To figure this out, the researchers used
Tideglusib on damaged teeth in mice to see how it promoted stem cell
activation.

The drug was applied to the cavity using a
biodegradable collagen sponge soaked in Tideglusib molecules, and then
everything was sealed up inside.

After several weeks, the team saw that the
collagen sponge had degraded, and the teeth had regenerated enough dentin to
fill the gap.

The process itself is very similar to a
normal cavity filling, but instead of putting in an artificial filler, doctors
are encouraging the growth of natural dentin, leading to healthier teeth in the
long run.

"Dentistry is not only about filling and
drilling, but also about keeping the teeth healthy," oral cell biologist
Ben Scheven from the University of Birmingham in the UK, who was not involved
with the study, told The Guardian.

"Especially since it’s an accessible and
cheap treatment, I can imagine this being used in the clinic."

Considering the technique has so far only
been tested in mice, there's a lot more research to be done to confirm if the
results can be replicated in humans, so we can't get ahead of ourselves just
yet.

The team plan on moving to rats next, and if
those results are positive, human trials could be on the cards.

The good news is that Tideglusib and the
collagen sponges used in the procedure have both passed clinical trials for
other treatments, which will likely speed up the process if the technique does
make it to human testing.

This isn't the only effort to improve how we
perform fillings - in 2015, another team in the UK announced that they're
developing a 'pulp cap' that can be inserted in a tooth to stimulate stem cells
and trigger similar dentin growth.

And another study from 2015, this time by
researchers in Australia, found that tooth decay could be reversed with a
high-concentration fluoride varnish before cavities form, possibly lowering the
amount of treatment needed to begin with.

We still have a long way to go before these
options will be available at our local dentist, but researchers are determined
to make oral care less horrible in the future, which should be good news tomillions of people who fear the drill.